Brigg Sprint National Championships
Always one of the highlights of the quadrathlon race calendar, this year’s British Championship race took place on 7th September in Brigg, Lincolnshire. The 2025 national race was a sprint-distance format of 750m river swim, 4km kayak, 18km bike and 5km run and it also doubled up as the third race in the British Trophy Series.
In the run up to the race it wasn’t clear whether the format would be a river or pool swim due to the amount of weeds in the Ancholme but the call was made to start the race in the river. This made for a very challenging first leg with all athletes struggling to force their way through the weeds.
The women’s race was very close and arguably the most exciting of the day! Last year’s Brigg Sprint winner, Rose Durrant exited the river first, just 9 seconds ahead of seasoned quadder Helen Russell. About 2 miles into the bike leg Helen caught Rose and the riders battled each other with positions swapping until the half way point when Rose pulled away and created a lead going into the kayak leg of 21 seconds. Both athletes had to deal again with the weeds in the river but just after the half way mark Helen overtook Rose paddling almost two minutes faster. Helen managed to maintain her lead throughout the run leg completing the final disciple just one second quicker than Rose to finish in an overall time of 1 hour, 43 minutes, and 19 seconds. Rose took the silver in 1.44.46 and Tora Oetgen took the final podium place in 1.56.56. In just one year Rose has improved by 5 minutes and 21 seconds, an incredible advancement in just 12 months. Tora also showed a big improvement finishing 4 minutes 59 seconds quicker than last year. Helen and Rose’s times were so fast that they actually finished 3rd and 4th overall beating most of the men!
The men’s race didn’t see much changing of positions. Following on from his victory at Dearne Valley Adam Norfolk was first out of the water and build on his lead throughout the race finishing in 1.28.50. Adam had the fastest time in all four disciplines. Nigel Unwin was the third male to exit the water but moved quickly into second place and comfortably stayed in that position throughout the race to take silver in 1.40.55 and the final podium place was taken by quadrathlon first time racer Richard Evans in 1.45.43. Welcome Richard to our sport!
Congratulations to our national champions Adam Norfolk and Helen Russell. Helen has now won the national title six times.
The first team was Red Roses and it was great to see team member and last year’s overall winner Erik Meilak returning to form after injury.
Massive Thanks to LincsQuad Quadrathlon Club for hosting the race, and their wonderful team of organisers and marshalls who give up their time and work so hard to run this event and make it safe and fun for participants!
Results
Women Overall
1st Helen Russell 1.43.19 Masters 50
2nd Rose Durrant 1.44.46 Elite
3rd Tora Oetgen 1.56.56 Masters 40
Under 20 Hermione Ball 01:57:38
Masters 40 (roll down) Emma Danforth 02:55:26
Masters 50 (roll down) Caroline Jones 02:44:33
Masters 60 Janet Green 02:19:42
Men Overall
1st Adam Norfolk 1.28.50 Masters 40
2nd Nigel Unwin 1.40.55 Masters 60
3rd Richard Evans 1.45.43 Elite
Masters 40 (roll down) Adam Draup 02:06:45
Masters 50 Wayne Smith 01:54:59
Masters 60 (roll down) Nicholas Farnell 01:49:32
Masters 70 John Mcadam 01:57:21
This was also the third in the Trophy Series which rewards consistency over the season, as athletes score points at races, with the points from the best three races to count towards the title. Some titles were decided at this race with results to be confirmed soon. With three wins Helen Russell has definitely taken the overall Series women’s title. The men’s title is yet to be decided and will come down to the final race of the season The Awesome Foursome on the 11th October.
Thanks to Helen Russell for the write up, full results and Trophy Standings will follow soon.
Whilst the British National Trophy still has 2 Races left in the 2025 Series – Brigg Sprint 7th September and Bude’s Awesome Foursome – (see links below to enter) The World Cup Results have been finalized after 9 Races. Big Thanks to the Brigg Bomber and to Manvers Dearne Valley Quad for hosting our 2 World Cup Races, and to all our British Quadrathletes that took part and gave us valuable points which gave us 3rd place in the World Standings! 
The BQA are pleased to see that Bude Quad will be also adding a sprint course quad to your usual Awesome Foursome course.
The race makes the very most of Bude’s geography and features. The open water swim takes place within the shelter of Bude’s breakwater. The cycle ride includes some amazing coastal hills (including the 1 in 3 climb at Millook). The kayak leg takes place on the tranquil Bude canal. And the final run follows the canal towpath onto the coastal path and back to Bude. The fastest athletes will take around 3 hours to complete the course with most finished within 4 hours.
NEW for 2025: The Sprint
A few weeks ago, The Charity Norfolk Superheros Pairs Quadrathlon took place in Burnham Overy, the BQA support this event and once again it was 
VIDEO 2025: The link to this year’s video is
NEXT YEAR: Next year’s Superhero will be on Saturday 20th June 2026. The date has not been announced yet, but as a key partner, we wanted to share this with you.
Special thanks to Mark Benton, David Jones and the Manvers Team for organising this great quad event, you are a wonderful ‘Team’ of people thank you for your enthusiasm and for inspiring so many to take to the water and embrace the challenge, you have put so many smiles on peoples faces at Manvers. As always the BQA are extremely grateful to everyone involved, we are a small sport, and its good to see so many competitors without a doubt it’s such a fabulous feel good event, enjoyed by everyone, from seasoned athletes to first timers and looking at the photos looks like you had a great day!
The Race this year was part of the BQA Trophy Series, but for the first time ever it was part of the World Quadrathlon Cup, so competitors were given BQA points plus WQF points, this is great to see so many British athletes with World Cup points. The GB team are now in 2nd place in the World Cup Trophy now “The Vaclav Merek National Trophy” this is given to country with the most the points at the end of the year. So huge well done to everyone who has raced so far this year! 
Onto the 30k bike stage and the course was just excellent. For me personally, I’d checked out the bike course on the previous Friday, so it was full gas all the way, tuck in, shrug the shoulders narrow and get aero, every second counts. The loop out of Waddingham and through Snitterby was just excellent fun. 49:24 later and I’m rolling back into the sports center, thinking now about the kayak leg.
So here we go, the day’s getting done now, just the run to go, 5k’s for the sprint and 9.8k’s for the middle distance event.
Kassel, a beautiful city in the middle of Germany, is a place of parks, wooded green hills, lakes, a river, health spas, great food, museums, culture and people who are just so friendly. It is home to just over 200,000 people and was where the brothers Grimm spent all of their young adult lives from their early teenage years, gathering up folk tales and publishing them into the world renowned fairy tales that we all know today, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood. It is also home to the wonderful Bernd Scheller and his fantastic team, who did such a fantastic job of organizing and running a hugely successful European Sprint Distance Quadrathlon Championships.
It consisted of a 500m swim across the river and back on a triangular anti-clockwise course. Next was a short run from the beach leading to the bike transition and then onto the 18k bike course, with 3 laps of a fast and flat course, based upon the Auedamm, the riverside road, lined with boat clubs and restaurants, that was closed off to vehicles, providing a safe course to race along.
The next leg is way more familiar for me personally and the computer reads 39-40kph, six sets of dead turns, one at each end of three laps and then back in, rack the bike and push on again.
The race overall was won by the incredible all round athlete and multi world champion Ferenc Csima of Hungary, with a time of 1:21:28. The women’s race was won by home club athlete Anna-Lena Klee, who put in amazing split times across all events and won with a time of 1:31:13.
On the bike leg I was pleased to put in a 1:00:40 time, so under the hour with the running to and from transition removed.
I finished first in my age category of 1956-1965 birth year (O60’s) with 3:33:30 to get age group World Champion.
Sadly our National Trophy Series was down to just 3 races this year, Shrewsbury has finally folded completely, which is very sad news, and Bude was also cancelled due to lack of support. Thankfully we still had 3 excellent races in our calendar, The Brigg Bomber (World Cup Event also) Dearne Valley Sprint, and The Brigg Sprint. On behalf of the BQA I’d like to say a Huge THANK YOU to all our Race organizers and volunteers, who work so hard each year to put on these events for us, it is a big commitment and we really do appreciate your time! Thanks also to all the Sponsors who support them, and to you the BQA Members for you annual fees, which are vital so we can run the BQA Governing Body and more important provide the ever important Insurance fees to be able to support the Race Organizers…. Big Thanks! I would also like to say an enormous thanks to John Kavanagh who produces the BQA and WQF Tables after each race, this is a huge commitment and we are all very grateful … Thanks John 
Big Thanks to LincsQuad Quadrathlon Club for hosting the race, and to the ‘Small but amazing Team’ of organizers and Marshalls who work timelessly to make this event possible! The race consisted of a 750m river swim, followed by a 19km road cycle, then a 4km Kayak and finishing with a 5km run. The course is flat, fast and ideal for both experienced quadrathletes and those wanting to race the shorter distance. There was a good turnout of 24 athletes, a lot of them looking for those vital National Trophy Points, as it was the final trophy Race of the Season!
Second place overall , and subject to the time adjustments for the roadworks on the bike section, I really hoped I had done enough for the BQA Trophy Series Win. Due to the roadworks it turned out to be a real headache for the organisers working out the results …but in the end, I had done enough…woohoo! 
Shoe change, keep the fleece on, still freezing, eat a cereal bar, jelly babies, move number to the front. Out on the run, lovely run, about 1k into the run took my fleece off, feet were still freezing though, home straight back into the leisure centre job done. The exhilaration at the end is terrific… that’s why you do it! such a sense of achievement. 1
My first Quadrathlon was at Manvers a sprint distance, a fantastic setting for an event, I got to the end of it but thought never again! Well for a day anyway. So planned to try and do 3 of the events the next year, injured my shoulder so did the Triathlon at Manvers instead. I couldn’t kayak but I wanted to do The Brigg Bomber so I entered a Ladies team, everyone loved it, and all said they would like to do it again, I did the swim leg. Then Covid hit putting everyone out of action. Post Covid I entered The Brigg Bomber again, another Ladies team, this time I did the run leg, again all loved it. I announced to the team that I would like to do it as an individual.